What a crazy week, not much reading done but there was a lot of excitement - Armchair BEA happened this week, so I also stalked twitter a lot for #BEA15 info and giveaways - since I couldn't go. I had a small party on Friday just because and my hubby left on a 5 day motorcycle trip to Maine with a friend. (I miss him already and may just sleep the whole time he is gone...)

I guess I went a bit crazy this week requesting things from Netgalley - because I got a lot of Graphic Novels and MG stories to read :) They all look cute.

Format: ebookSource: From Oni Press in exchange for an honest review. Receiving this ebook in no way altered my opinion or review.Rating:

Synopsis: Liz, Bodey, Maude, and Justine's band, Odd
Schnozz and the Odd Squad, are sure to win this year's Battle of the
Bands. But when a talking chimp, who claims to be a scientist from the
mysterious organization B.L.A.N.K., interrupts their practice session,
the band's got a whole new set of problems. Now B.L.A.N.K. agents are
closing in, determined to recapture the escaped chimp before he becomes a
liability. Jeffrey Burandt (Americans UK) and Dennis Culver (Edison Rex) bring you this thrilling tale of cyborg animals and punk rock teenagers. 1, 2, 3, 4!

Review: I am so glad I have stuck with this one. Odd is becoming more eventful with all sorts of new cyborg animals all over the book and one by one we are introduced to new characters as well. All the original characters in this one are fighting life to get to battle of the bands and now there is still a talking monkey to deal with. I don't want to spoil the whole storyline so here is what is important - this is a weird book, but a good one so far. The illustrations are bold and easy to read and follow and the characters are strange and real. I am loving it.

May 28, 2015

It is another year and that means another Armchair BEA for those of us who couldn't make it to the actual BEA Conference. (Click the Banner for more info)

This year there is even a theme! DIVERSITY!!! WOO HOO.

If you haven't already, go sign up to play with us, Armchair BEA registration is HERE.

Day 2: Visual Expressions & Social Media

...Visual Expressions...

Woot for today! I love Graphic Novels, Comics, and Picture books! OH SO MUCH. I love to add them in to read-a-thons as breaks from long pages of words and enjoy the colors and art of wonderful illustrators and artists. It is just such a relief. So here are some of my favorite series (right now) and where to start if you are interested.

Courtney is one of my favorite series, I love the dark macabre art that it includes and I love the storyline. Courtney is a young girl whose family decides they are going to move to live with her creepy old uncle in a mansion that looks and feels like it is out of the Addams family. Courtney soon realizes there is more than meets the eye with her uncle Al and the story is AMAZING.

So I love me some Batman but that is a lot of backstory to trudge through it you really want the whole experiences - so I stick to what I love - a strong female and Harley Quinn or Harleen Quinzel is just that. AND you get a good amount of story and some back story about her in this new run of comics about her. The New 52 came out in 2011 as a revamp of the older DC comics - trying to regain readership. It was a great idea. There is some time for you to catch up on the 16 or so comics that are out now as DC (and Marvel for that matter) are going another angle for a bit with their new Convergence (and Marvel's Secret Wars). The new Convergence run was only for two months but when we come back to Harley I think we are getting a Harley/ Power Girl Mash up...

I am sensing a pattern in myslef with all these creepy crazy female leads in my comics ...hmmm... I should think on that... OH WELL!

Lenore is another one of these darker graphic novels I have read and I think her is adorable - she is a little dead girl who has a plethora of other strange talking things to help her on her adventures, slight spoiler - they do sometimes kill people, but mostly it is COMPLETE coincidence :)

Here are a few others that I enjoy...

...Social Media...

Social Media is daily for me, I have an office job and there is some down time so I am online A LOT. I have accounts with Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Goodreads, Librarything... I think that is all of them.

I use Facebook more in my personal life than for Blogging - however I do have a Cover2CoverBlog Facebook Page, feel free to stop by and say hello.

I have a Twitter account that I hop on almost daily to read through real quick and both my Facebook Page an Twitter are automatically fed my blog posts. Although druing BEA I am not on Twitter much because the jealousy is strong when I see all of the books people are getting -- and I am working :(

I use Goodreads and Librarything for finding books and reviewing very regularly and am on them ALL the time.

The other accounts are really just around, I use them every so often but not really.

May 27, 2015

It is another year and that means another Armchair BEA for those of us who couldn't make it to the actual BEA Conference. (Click the Banner for more info)

This year there is even a theme! DIVERSITY!!! WOO HOO.

If you haven't already, go sign up to play with us, Armchair BEA registration is HERE.

Day 1: Library Lovin'

I recently found my library - it is a weird situation. I live in VT but work in NH so I pass like 3 NH libraries on my way to and from work but the VT library isn't really on my way anywhere so I had not bothered. But then I realized (even though I have too many TBRs here on my shelf) that I just needed more options. So I found it.... the most adorable and wonderful library :)

It is pretty much an older home and the various rooms are different sections of books. the basement is all the YA and MG that I love AND they rent DVDs too so I have been checking out older movies of my youth :) SO MUCH FUN.

SO MUCH love for this place.

They are even doing an adult summer reading program/ challenge and giving away a Kindle which I found amazing!

It is another year and that means another Armchair BEA for those of us who couldn't make it to the actual BEA Conference. (Click the Banner for more info)

This year there is even a theme! DIVERSITY!!! WOO HOO.

If you haven't already, go sign up to play with us, Armchair BEA registration is HERE.

Day 1: Introductions

Tell us a bit about yourself: How long have you been blogging? Where are you from? How did you get into blogging?

I am Stephanie, I live in the US in Vermont and I have been blogging since February 2012. I read a lot and used to bother my husband while he was doing things and he told me I needed a hobby and I should start book-blogging - so I did and is has become more than just a hobby, I love it!

Why do you loving reading and blogging?

I love reading because you can go anywhere, be anyone for a chunk of time and it is thrilling. I love blogging because I love that I can share my passion for reading with others and I hope they find my reviews helpful.

What is your theme song?

Yesss....I love this movie and this theme and even have the soundtrack in my car that I listen to (yes I am a crazy person)

What does diversity mean to you?

Wow, that is a hard one. Diversity to me is a variety of things - giving me options. In the book world this can be characters - genders, races, orientations - and even overall themes as well.

What is one book everyone should read?

One? :/ The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. All the emotion - this is how a book should be.

Share your favorite blog post on your blog. (aka written by you!)

hm... this is a hard one. I would have to say one of my first blog reviews The Peculiars, I requested this book through Netgalley after creating my blog and reviewed it for that purpose so really it got me started. It is nothing fancy but it was a monumental occasion for Cover2CoverBlog.

What is your favorite genre and why?

Young Adult Fantasy, because I love the teenage angst (not sure why) and I love mythical creatures and the crazy-adventurous things that can happen in fantasy.

What book are you reading right now?

I have been reading Empire of Sin for a while now, it is non-fiction and I just have to really be in the mood to read it... I am also reading Vivian Apple at the End of the World.

What is the top book in your TBR pile?

Top as in been there the longest? That would be Old Habits a Wicked Lovely Novella (#2.6) Or which one I want to read right now? That would be Carry On by Rainbow Rowell coming out later this year -- want SO bad to read that one!

What book are you most looking forward to reading this summer?

ALL of them..., no really, I need to catch up on my reading I have so many books I need to review, I really to to just binge read all summer long!

If you were stranded on a deserted island, what author would you want to bring with you? Why?

Oh that is a good question and a hard one...I feel like I would want to be stranded with Agatha Christie they mystery writer (if she were still alive). I love all of her books - esp. as beach reads so why not be on the beach with her?! Right?!

Take a picture of your bookshelf and share it with us! :) (#ABEAShelfie)

May 25, 2015

Format: PaperbackSource: BEA 2013 (Yes, I still have books in my TBR from BEA.)

Rating:

Goodreads Synopsis:

"Meerkat Madness " is
an uproarious mini-novel for kids in Barron's frantically funny,
stupendously silly, and fun-filled "Awesome Animals" series. Kids will
start laughing the moment they open this short, easy-to-read novel--and
they'll keep on turning the pages to find out which new tricks these
hilarious Meerkats are getting ready to concoct next. Comical
black-and-white cartoon-style illustrations appear on many pages to
capture the story's zany spirit. All "Awesome Animals" novels are
divided into chapters, so that boys and girls can put the books down
when Mom calls them for dinner--though kids will want to pick these
stories up again as soon as they can!

Review: This was a cute book and I liked it but it wasn't anything spectacular, to me at least. We follow four Meerkats on an adventure that has them fighting off birds of prey, other Meerkat tribes, and even vroom-vrooms. I enjoyed the information that this book shares about Meerkats and how they do things - the hierarchy of their groups, how they eat and watch for predictors and how they interact with one another. The story was very fun as well. These four kats are trying to leave their burrow for a new one and their experiences are fun filled and exciting. The book is written in a very clever way, in that everything is from the Meerkat's point of view so human things are foreign to them and it makes for some laugh-out-loud moments.I think younger readers will get a kick out of this book, it is cute, informational, and fun, and there are even illustrations as well.

This week was another great one. Read more books! I am excited for my 3-day weekend and plan to read/ sleep/ watch corny movies :) What do you have planned? Do you have a long weekend too?

I am also getting ready for Armchair BEA 2015 which starts on Wednesday to coincide with the actual BEA conference. As I am part of the planning committee for it, I am even more pumped than usual - we have a theme! DIVERSITY! So make sure to stop by, sign up, and read through the Armchair BEA Agenda.Also if you have any Blogging Q&A questions, please share them in the comments and I would be happy to answer as many as I can in Friday's post. :)I hope you all had a wonderful week! Let me know in the comments!

Death of the Mad Hatter by Sarah Pepper

The Jack prophesied: If
the king loses his head, then the Queen with a Bleeding Heart would
rule the Red Court until Time ceased to move forward. When a second
carried on for infinity, every creature in Wonderland would tip their
Hat to the misfit girl with a Boy’s name (or was it a boy with a Girl’s
name?) who’d end the Reign of Terror. However, it all hinged on the
One-Eyed Hare being able to convince an uninspirable Heir that the
impossible was indeed possible—like stopping time—and that Love was
worth a Beheading.

Heads would Roll…Hearts would Break…In the end, would it matter who Reigned?

Top
Three Interesting Retellings ofAlice
in Wonderlandand why they
deserve to be mentioned?

I thought it would be fun to incorporate a few of the original Alice in
Wonderland quotes to reference the most significant (to me) Wonderland
retellings.

I’ve always been a little afraid of Alice’s story—okay, lame I know,
but I blame Disney for my irrational fear of all things Wonderland. I watched
the movie when I was a young girl, and being a food lover, I was petrified.
Why? Because Alice ate some yummy food and then didn’t stop growing!! How could
you hide the fact that you snuck a cupcake from Mom when you are ten feet tall?
So eating a wonderous breakfast was
out of the question. If a cupcake could make me a giant, then I wasn’t about to
try the orange juice.

Johnny Depp’s Alice in Wonderland would probably be my next favorite
retelling. Any J.D. fan will love his performance. He gets so into his
characters, becoming them through and through. Since Death of the Mad Hatter is focused mainly on the Mad Hatter, I was
inspired by Depp and hope that is portrayed in the novel. Maybe I, me, and
myself, am a little bit mad to dream
up a character who is unapologetically insane.

“Wonderland
was an intoxicating, magical world where the most farfetched dreams could come
true and the impossible was possible. Conversely, it was a realm where the most
daunting nightmares could haunt us until the end of time”—Death of the Mad
Hatter. To me, Wonderland is a beautiful haunting place (probably because I
have mixed feelings about their food). But to another person, the food might be
the best part about the fantasy world. I just love how far the imagination can
take you, which is why Alice in Zombieland is my third
favorite retelling. The author took us to a completely different Wonderland
than what most people imagine. So off
with their zombie heads!

May 22, 2015

Format: HardbackSource: Recieved an ebook from Penguin First to Read back in October and never got around to reading it, so I borrowed a copy from my library.

Rating: DNF (stopped at page 200)

Goodreads Synopsis:

Can you hear Atlantia breathing?

For
as long as she can remember, Rio has dreamt of the sand and sky
Above—of life beyond her underwater city of Atlantia. But in a single
moment, all her plans for the future are thwarted when her twin sister,
Bay, makes an unexpected decision, stranding Rio Below. Alone, ripped
away from the last person who knew Rio’s true self—and the powerful
siren voice she has long hidden—she has nothing left to lose.

Guided
by a dangerous and unlikely mentor, Rio formulates a plan that leads to
increasingly treacherous questions about her mother’s death, her own
destiny, and the complex system constructed to govern the divide between
land and sea. Her life and her city depend on Rio to listen to the
voices of the past and to speak long-hidden truths.

Review: I tried SO hard to get through this book and enjoy it, but sadly I could not. When I originally requested the arc from Penguin, I thought it was about mermaids... or sirens like the scary kind I have read about in other books but this was not the case.

What I found with Atlantia was just a slow moving plot line - in the first chapter Rio's sister, Bay, leaves for the Above and I read up until about 200 pages and Rio is still figuring out a way up to ask her why. Now this would have been fine if there was other stuff happened as build up but really everything that happened just seems lack-luster. Rio begins to question the system - but doesn't do anything about it, her aunt becomes part of her life - but she seems fine with it overall, and there is a cute guy - only, she is being detached and off-putting toward him so romance didn't really happen in those first 200 pages either. Everything that should have pulled me in, just didn't.

I really wanted to enjoy this book, and I feel like I stuck it out for about 100 pages more than others the DNFed it, but still nothing - I just wanted to take a nap (and once I even did fall asleep while reading it :/)

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About:

Stephanie (aka Gorelenore) works full time for a university and in her spare time reads...A LOT! She lives with her husband, her dog Rolo, her cat Cooper, and 2 bearded dragons in the Green Mountain State of Vermont.

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